I caught my first one yesterday and the telltale sign of its mission was very evident in my garden.
Yes, the cats are back. With the snow and ice finally melted, the dirt is exposed, and I am not sure, but I think mine calls out to cats.
I am a dog person. I was raised with dogs, Labrador retrievers and I had 2 golden retrievers, and in my yard, I never had this problem before because the cats and dogs did not mix. You know what also is not a great mix? Vegetables and cat poop.
Moving to this house there has been a constant struggle with cats thinking that my dirt is the perfect place for them to “do their business”. Flower garden or vegetable garden, it does not matter – apparently it all looks good to them.
I walked out to the garbage can last night and as soon as I opened the front door, a black cat shot out of the flower bed and took off. I looked down where he had been and saw the hump of dirt covering up his deposit.
Why if I have a dog, do I have to have a licence from the city and keep it confined to my own property? If I take my dog for a walk, I have to have a leash and I have to clean up any deposits it makes on the ground. I have thought about collecting the poop and placing it into a little bag and putting it on people’s porches with a note about cleaning up their animals mess but I have yet to do it. I have certainly thought about it.
Cats can roam free and I counted 9 different one’s last year that I saw in my yard. This sucks! Why are there no bylaws regarding cats? No license, no confinement to their own yards and certainly no one seems to pick up after their cat. Why does no one seem to care that their cat is pooping in someone else’s yard?
The only neighbour that came around last year about their cat was a couple whose cat had been hit by a car and they were looking for it to bury it. I felt horrible for them, because I love my pets, but honestly if the cat was kept home, this could have been avoided.
I love to dig in my garden and a couple times I have forgotten to wear my gloves and boy that is not a great idea.
I have tried so many things to deter the cats from “critter ridder” to eggshells, cayenne pepper, cinnamon, orange peels nothing has worked. We finally got a sprinkler last year for the vegetable garden that is motion activated, the cats head in there and get a blast from the hose. In the flower bed the only thing that seems to work at all for some time was skewers. Yup, I put those long sharp wooden toothpick sticks into my garden, so it was not comfy to settle your butt down, it looks silly but it works. It is not convenient to do this to a vegetable garden.
I am frustrated that I have to spend my time and money to keep someone else’s property off of mine!
Being responsible for your pet, dog or cat is the most respectful thing we can do for other people. No one wants to clean up your pets messes please keep fluffy home.